Book review - "Captain in Calico" by George MacDonald Fraser (1950s)

Discovered after Fraser's death this was his first novel (unless there's another one). It's professionally written but is not near the quality of the work published in his life time. It has the stories and characters - pirates running around the Caribbean, Jack Rackham going on a mission for Woodes Rogers and turning pirate with Anne Bonney being wonton - but it never comes alive. It doesn't have things that made later Fraser works so delightful, such as a feeling for time and place, humour, sketches of characters.  It's too formal, unsure of itself, as if it was written for a school assignment. There's no life, dash to it.